Turkish Min: Iran-Turkey Will Implement More Joint Projects

Tehran, May 22, IRNA -- Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz underlined on Monday the necessity of expansion of Iran-Turkey ties and said the Iranian and Turkish state and private sectors must do their utmost to carry out more joint projects. He made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian and Turkish economic activists in Iran Chamber of Commerce in Tehran. Pointing to the trade which stood at dlrs three billion in 2003, Yilmaz said Turkey has exercised the most cooperation with Iranian companies. "Trade rose up eight-fold and exceeded 16 billion dollar in 2011. He said Turkey's export to Iran grew 18 percent and reached 3.6 billion dollars while the import grew up 50 percent and reached dlrs 12.4 billion. "Despite some international limitation in trading with Iran, Tehran and Ankara keep dynamic ties which is mostly due to the bravery of traders," the Minister said. Yilmaz described the current trade level as unsatisfactory based on 150 million population and the financial turnover and said Turkish export to Iran decreased in 2012 but the import experienced a 52 percent growth./end